


Certain Things

by morningssofgold



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Romance, Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, PTSD, Romance, Romantic Angst, Slow Burn, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:55:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23455132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morningssofgold/pseuds/morningssofgold
Summary: Malcolm remembered telling Dani the other day that grace was undeserved forgiveness. It was something that you couldn't earn. He’d been talking about Outer Dark but Malcolm realized just then that he’d been talking about himself as well. Malcolm didn’t deserve Dani’s grace nor could he earn it. It was given to him simply because she allowed it.Malcolm finally does better and reconnects with Dani Post 1x18.A Brightwell confession fic
Relationships: Malcolm Bright / Dani Powell
Comments: 10
Kudos: 54





	Certain Things

**Author's Note:**

> _And there's certain things that I adore_   
>  _And there's certain things that I ignore_   
>  _But I'm certain that I'm yours_
> 
> _Certain Things // James Arthur_

Malcolm should’ve been paying attention to Edrisa breaking down the contents of her report, briefing them on the incredibly strange circumstances of their latest victim’s death. He had been paying attention, he’d given the excitable Medical Examiner his undivided attention–something she’d been absolutely delighted by–but somewhere during her spiel, Malcolm’s attention drifted and he found himself staring across the conference room table at Dani.

Though Malcolm would never admit it, this sort of thing wasn’t unusual for him. He often found himself staring at the incredibly beautiful detective. He studied people’s expressions for a living and he watched Dani’s oscillate between boredom and mandatory interest as she occasionally scribbled in a notepad. He noticed her subtly smoky eye makeup and the terracotta rose lipstick she favored. He also noticed how different her hair looked today. Her soft looking dark curls were even more voluminous than normal. If there was one thing about Dani that Malcolm loved most, it was those spirals of controlled chaos that he would give anything run his fingers through.

There was something about Dani and all Malcolm had were these stolen looks. He wished he could admire her in earnest but he couldn’t. She wasn’t his to do so and Malcolm didn’t think Dani would actually want to be anyway.

The more Malcolm looked at Dani, the more those feelings of both longing and loss circled within him. He watched Dani in her soft looking forrest green sweater lean back in her chair and roll her eyes, clearly unimpressed by the customary pass Edrisa awkwardly made at him. Dani wore green quite often–it looked incredible on her–and Malcolm wondered if it was her favorite color. He wished he could ask.

Dani took care of him, she protected him and she looked after him. Malcolm had no reason to believe that she would see someone who more or less equated to a stray puppy that their boss continuously forced on her as anything more than that. Dani _needed_ no man to protect her but wouldn’t she want one? Wouldn’t she want a man who could take care of her–a man who had big enough shoulders to carry her burdens if she needed it? There was no way she believed that _he_ could do that for _her_?

Malcolm would like to do that–to be that–for Dani. He’d like to be the one she turned to when she needed someone. He’d like to be the _first_ one she thought of when things went wrong because she knew he could make it better. 

Malcolm wasn’t and he didn’t think he ever would be which is why he ran from what he felt for her–this ever growing _thing_ that was on the verge of consuming him entirely. What he’d been feeling since Dani had first brought him home many months ago, helping him into his restraints while assuring him that it wasn’t the weirdest thing she’d ever seen.

He thought maybe if he tried for something with someone else, he wouldn’t feel the constant threat of being overwhelmed by the feelings he had for his partner–a woman–that he was sure would never want him back. Was it cowardly? Yes but Malcolm would be a coward if it meant never having to face the pain of Dani’s rejection as the very thought of it was at times too hard to bear.

It was a good idea in theory except the woman Malcolm thought for sure wanted him hadn’t–she never did. She’d lied and used him. She hadn’t even cared about him and she certainly hadn’t done half of what Dani did for him and a part of him knew she _never_ would. Even as Malcolm knew all of this, he’d still tried in vain to construct his own reality that somehow, someway someone actually wanted him–to stay with him and the entire luggage set that stopped being merely baggage at nine years old. That false reality that he’d carefully constructed was a sandcastle that had inevitably been swept away by the tide.

Now, Malcolm had no one. He promised to do better for Dani but his fear of getting even closer to her made him do objectively worse. Dani had expected what Malcolm couldn’t deliver and now she didn’t trust him anymore and he didn’t know how to fix it. His word meant nothing after he’d already let her down.

When Dani got angry, she had him at her mercy. Malcolm remembered the last time he’d made her angry. He remembered the cold, cutting words he spoke to her at the Funeral Director’s Convention when she’d only been trying to comfort him–connect–with him. He remembered her tears and how it felt to know he’d been the one to put them there. Malcolm felt _terrible_ knowing that he hurt her and he immediately wanted to atone for it. He immediately wanted to repair what he’d done but he didn’t see anger when he looked at her now.

He saw _indifference_ and Malcolm had no idea how to make Dani care again when that was all she’d ever done from the start.

–––––––––––––––

All of their leads for their current case had dried up and the profile he was supposed to be constructing got amended so many times, Malcolm had thrown it out altogether being forced to start from scratch.

Though Gil didn’t call him in as they had nothing new to investigate, Malcolm decided to show up to the precinct anyway. He had nothing to do and free time proved to be more of an enemy than an ally. 

Malcolm remembered sharing that very fact with Dani not too long ago as they’d sat in her car that time Gil charged her with taking him to the airport for his mandatory vacation. Malcolm remembered the words he spoke to her then:

_I’m afraid of me. The more relaxed things are out there, the more time I have to think in here. And when that happens…_

_It’s terrifying_ , Dani had completed his sentence. Somehow she knew exactly what he meant–how he felt. She always did. She understood him–someone who by all accounts was as illegible as they come–without having to try. Something that was also terrifying.

Malcolm shook his head. He was drifting in the middle of a coffee shop. He often stopped here before heading to work as he appreciated the calming atmosphere and the soft Neo-Soul music filtering through the speakers. He didn’t sleep much and the coffee he had at home wasn’t nearly enough to keep the delirium among other things at bay.

As he waited, wondering how long Gil’s lecture would be about showing up without cause, Malcolm glanced up, his eyes landing on a very attractive girl with her head buried in a book. He couldn’t see her face fully but he noticed her dark curly hair piled on top of her head, falling over her forehead, secured by a tan tie dyed scarf. She appeared to be petite as chunky black sweater swallowed her frame.

The girl tilted her head a bit, frowning at whatever she was reading and Malcolm realized that this very attractive bookworm was in fact… _Dani_.

––––––––––––––––––

Malcolm blinked, making sure he was seeing correctly. He watched as the girl’s lip curled in disgust as she turned a page in her book. 

_That’s definitely Dani._

This was the first time he’d ever seen her outside of work for a reason that had nothing to do with work. Malcolm didn’t know what he was doing but he found himself walking toward her table without thinking better of it.

“ _Outer Dark_ …?” Malcolm questioned as he got a closer look at her the cover of her book. He didn’t know the types of books Dani preferred but he certainly wasn’t expecting it to be Cormac McCarthy’s southern gothic odyssey. 

Dani looked up, clearly surprised to see him right then. Malcolm tried not to behave awkwardly as he saw Dani almost every day but seeing her in her oversized sweater and her leggings and Dr. Martens with her hair tied up, he thought she looked incredibly cute and he hoped his infatuation wasn’t written all over his face. “Bright? What are you doing here?”

Malcolm shrugged, sliding into the seat across from her. “Probably the same reason you’re here. So Outer Dark? What did you think of it?” Malcolm asked eagerly, he’d read this book a few times and from the way she had been frowning, he figured Dani had a lot of opinions and he wanted to hear _all_ of them.

Dani quirked an expertly groomed brow at him, undoubtably wondering exactly what was going on here as they’d barely spoken to each other over the past three weeks but Malcolm noticed the little smile playing at the edge of her glossy pink lips. “Honestly, I didn’t get it. It was weird like Culla and Rinthy have a baby who Culla leaves out in the woods and they’re brother and sister. It’s all _so_ gross.” Dani cringed daintily.

Malcolm grinned, “Yes, the incest is unsavory but there’s more to it than that. Their relationship like everything else in the book is destructive but there’s nothing more so than the landscape. The land has tentacles.”

“Tentacles?” Dani echoed, sounding unconvinced. “I didn’t get that.”

“Not actual tentacles but the land _takes_. It’s poisonous and it pulls things in as opposed letting anything grow. Did you notice that there’s a lot of rain in the book but there’s no crops and everything’s covered in dust? The land is sick. It’s the anti-pastoral.” Malcolm said leaning in closely, spurred on by the soft sparkle in Dani’s deep brown eyes that he only seemed to see whenever he got like this. Too excited and being a total nerd.

Dani nodded, leaning closer in response. Her posture completely and unconsciously mirroring his. “I guess that makes sense as the area is super impoverished and that is tied to the land but like…why is Rinthy always _leaking_?”

Malcolm couldn’t help but smile at Dani’s adorably disgusted face as it was the exact same one she’d made at the crime scene during their necrophiliac case. “Think about it, Rinthy bleeding and over producing milk is the abject. It’s porous. That’s why it’s grotesque. Things that are supposed to be kept inside are coming out.”

Dani big brown eyes lit up as if she’d found the missing link to a particularly difficult case and Malcolm didn’t think he could be more besotted if he tried. “So it’s just like Rinthy and Culla’s relationship then?”

“Exactly!” Malcolm said as he smiled his thanks to a waitress who’d brought his coffee to the table. He thought he’d asked for it to go but from he and Dani’s admittedly animated conversation, it must’ve looked like he had planned to meet her here. The thought of doing such a thing warmed him. 

Malcolm never would’ve imagined that Dani would like the same books he did but he supposed it only reinforced their uncanny compatibility, that same compatibility he’d been trying in vain to talk himself out of.

“What’s up with the trio though?” Dani said, taking a sip of her tea. “I didn’t really get that part. They kinda keep showing up?”

“Oh, the unholy trinity? They’re a manifestation of Culla’s three crimes.”

Dani tilted her head, narrowing her eyes. “Uh huh...it’s like the whole idea of bad things come in threes. But also seriously? So they’re not like actual people?”

“First of all, _very good_.” Malcolm smirked, nodding approvingly while knowing she that wanted a clear answer that couldn’t be provided, “Second of all, we don’t know if they exist or not. But we do know that death follows Culla around. I mean, he is the scythe that cuts through each place–each community–he visits.”

“And you feel sorry for him.” Dani leaned back in her chair, her arms folded and brows raised.

“I didn’t say that,” Malcolm laughed, raising his hands in surrender. “I’m just saying that there’s no grace, there’s no forgiveness. For him there’s only death.” 

Malcolm did have a tendency to sympathize with some of the worst people on earth but sympathy and forgiveness weren’t concepts in this book. The idea is that one had to feel remorse and guilt before asking for forgiveness. There was not a lot of remorse but there was a lot of guilt and a lot of questions. He knew firsthand what that looked like every time he visited his father. Martin had no remorse but Malcolm always had a lot of guilt and a lot of questions.

“You _do_ feel sorry for him.” Dani said, shaking her head at the fact that Malcolm was once again sympathizing with a murderer as she reclaimed her tea, smirking over the rim of her mug. “You forget how well I know you.”

Malcolm glanced down into the depths of his black coffee, a blush heating his cheeks. Dani _did_ know him. It was shocking even to him just how well she did, despite her being a relatively new person in his life. She could always tell when he was upset or distressed or lying or drifting. Sometimes Dani didn’t even have to speak to comfort him or calm him down.

Malcolm remembered what it felt like to have the rug pulled from underneath him. To be in utter crisis and Dani’s phone call right when he felt everything begin to slip away and unravel, anchored him once more. 

She had no idea what that had done for him but _he_ did. Just like she had no idea what _this_ did for him. 

Dani truly was the one he liked talking to. Malcolm hadn’t lied to her when he’d admitted that to her. Whenever things happened–the things that haunted and ate at him– all he could think about was telling Dani. It wasn’t that he wanted to unburden himself on her but she always understood. Her steady, calm presence always soothed him and he missed her when she wasn’t around.

Malcolm couldn’t describe how it felt to see Dani to smile at him again. How it felt to see amusement and fondness shine through her dark eyes when she looked at him. It had hurt but Malcolm had gotten used to seeing Dani’s disappointment in him. 

He really did want to do better but it had been _hard_ to try for someone he was certain he didn’t deserve. Malcolm could try as hard as he could but it still wouldn’t be enough. _He_ would never be enough. 

Every time Dani’s beautiful face appeared in Malcolm's mind, she’d been shoved right back out with that incredibly cold and sobering realization. The more he thought about his time spent with her today, the more he just wasn’t so sure.

Talking to her like this with no trauma, no murder, no problems–it felt nice.

It felt like hope.

––––––––––––––––

It always felt a bit strange coming back to work after a day off but Dani was determined to go get back to detective mode as she headed to her desk, expecting to see updated case files instead finding the same stack of paperwork she’d been avoiding and a very worn copy of _Blood Meridian_ , another Cormac McCarthy novel.

Flipping through the pages of the book, a note slipped out. 

_Can you find the point?_ it read cryptically. Dani smiled to herself as she immediately recognized Malcolm’s loopy script. After he’d explained everything to her about _Outer Dark_ , she’d asked him for the point as she’d gotten all the way to the end and everything was just as hopeless as it was at the beginning.

Malcolm had smirked in that annoying way of his, telling her that the outer dark is the place without sun, which allowed him to launch into a lengthy explanation of McCarthy’s aggressive antitheism that definitely did not answer her question.

“What you over here smilin’ about?” JT asked quizzically from his desk, breaking into her thoughts. “You got some kinda secret admirer, Powell?”

“Yeah JT and he romantically left me a novel apparently famous for its gratuitous violence and depravity,” Dani said dryly.

JT frowned. “Huh…well I guess, it’s not a secret. That’s Bright.”

“Good guess,” Dani rolled her eyes before turning back to the paperwork she’d been neglecting, putting Malcolm’s worn paperback in her bag. 

The only thing was that Malcolm was definitely no admirer of hers. 

For a moment, Dani thought he was. She remembered the way Malcolm looked at her coming out of the dressing room that time their case allowed them to crash the Taylor wedding of the century. 

She remembered being so irrationally nervous for him to see her without what she’d always thought of as her armor. Her leather jackets and combat boots. 

The dress she’d chosen was the deepest red and it sparkled. It clung to her in a way most of her clothes did not and Dani couldn’t imagine what Malcolm would think or if he’d even react but he had. 

Malcolm’s incredibly expressive ice blue eyes had widened almost cartoonishly as he took her in, searching for words to describe what he saw. Dani had blushed furiously, completely overwhelmed by his attention and completely unable to fight off her uncharacteristic shyness.

It was at that moment, Dani realized that she was in deep but at the time, she thought it was okay. She thought he’d come closer but he didn’t. Malcolm made her think that he truly hadn’t been as affected as she thought–as affected as she had been by him.

As much as that _hurt_ , she didn’t want to live in that moment again and Dani couldn’t help the smile that spread across her lips as she thought more about how she’d spent her day off. 

She’d done what she usually did when she wasn’t spending all day and night at the precinct which is take some time for herself.

She’d wandered into the Strand, hoping to find something that would take her mind off of work and also life, two things that had become unexpectedly and inexplicably intertwined somehow. Whenever Dani got overwhelmed, she liked to lose herself in a book and at the moment, she really needed to get lost.

Dani had really needed to stop thinking about Malcolm and everything she felt for him. Everything she did for him. Things that had been taken for granted and discarded easier than she could’ve imagined. She stood by him and she stood with him but none of that seemed to matter, Malcolm still went looking to someone else. Someone he’d asked her to run a background check on as if that wasn’t the most insulting thing of all.

She wasn’t like this. Dani didn’t let people get close and most definitely not close enough to hurt her but she allowed Malcolm to get close and all he did was hurt her.

Dani had grown tired of trying so hard for someone who wouldn’t try at all–at least not for _her_ and she’d put space between them. She wouldn’t give into this feeling of being tethered to him. This feeling of knowing exactly _what_ Malcolm needed when he needed it. Whatever he needed, he could find it elsewhere which is exactly what he’d done.

It had been a good idea in theory and Dani thought it was working until she looked up from her book at a coffee shop she frequented near the precinct, only to see Malcolm’s unreasonably handsome and excited face peering back at her at the sight of her choice of reading material.

 _Of course, he’d love this weird ass book_ was the first thing that crossed her mind when she saw him and as Malcolm spent nearly the entire day until nightfall carefully and happily explaining to her the book’s biblical allegory–something he unsurprisingly knew a lot about–to McCarthy’s “obvious” critique of southern agrarianism–something he surprisingly knew a lot about. 

If Dani were being completely honest, she loved every minute of it. When Malcolm got like that, it made it easy to remember the man she thought he was. The man who was _real_. The man who let her see who he _really_ was. A man she found to be deeply flawed but no less beautiful and interesting. Someone she thought to be worthy of her care and her trust, not someone who embodied inconsistency. 

Yesterday, it felt good to live in _that_ moment where it was just the two of them and Dani wanted to told onto that. She wanted to tuck it away and keep it with her.

She would _definitely_ find the point of this book and she couldn’t wait to prove to him that she could.

––––––––––––––––

Malcolm stood at the board with his hands behind his back, staring at the ties that bound their two victims, allowing him to deduce just what type of killer they were looking for. After almost a week later, he had a functioning profile. Gil wasn’t accusing him of wasting time and he and Dani were working together again.

Malcolm could look to his right and know his partner would be right there and she’d give him that look because she _knew_.

“Bright? What the hell was this?” Dani demanded. Malcolm didn’t have to turn around to know what she was talking about. He didn’t even have to turn around to know it was her standing behind him. He was so attuned to her, he always knew.

“I take it you found the point?” He grinned, taking in Dani’s beautiful yet irritated face. 

“I did not. I read this entire book and there was no point.”

“That’s not actually true. The point about _Blood Meridian_ is that we do not know and we cannot know,” Malcolm finished as a slow smile appeared over his features in time with the outrage appearing over Dani’s.

“You jackass, you trolled me!” Dani swung the paperback at him, laughing despite herself as she narrowly avoided connecting with his shoulder as he ducked out of the way.

“I’m sorry, Dani you made it so easy,” Malcolm laughed as he snatched the book out the air as she launched it at him.

“Uh…I thought I sent you two in here to work?” Gil asked, leaning against the doorframe, his arms folded, allowing them to glance sideways at each other and then downward like chastised kids.

“Sorry, Gil. I do have a profile though.” Malcolm admitted sheepishly. He’d gotten carried away, completely lost in the ease of talking to Dani. Even if she was trying to pummel him with a paperback, Malcolm couldn’t remember the last time he felt so relaxed. 

Even when Malcolm had been trying for something else, he still felt as though pins and needles had overtaken his body. His disquiet had been constant as it almost always was. Trying to be normal hadn’t changed that. Malcolm belatedly realized that only being around Dani had. 

He missed her so much. He missed that feeling only Dani could give him and he wanted it all the time. Malcolm wanted that day in the coffee shop and he wanted that night at the Taylor wedding but this time he wanted to be honest with her. Dani had given him the opportunity but he couldn’t–didn't–take it but this time he had to. 

Malcolm had no real reason to doubt her. He only did because certain things–many things–hurt but Dani was his only virtue. The only truly good thing in his life of deception and half-truths. She’d never lied to him nor had she ever deceived him. All she’d ever been was his shoulder to turn to. 

As he watched Dani leave for the interrogation room at their boss’s orders, Malcolm realized that was the last time he could let her leave without her knowing how he felt about her–without her knowing the truth.

––––––––––––––––––––

“Gil said I’d find you in here,” Dani said, stepping into the morgue watching Malcolm pace in front of their two victims, before stopping to peer at the first one closely.

“Yeah, it’s where I come to–"

“Bright, don’t say ‘think’” Dani said making a face.

Malcolm looked up before his incredibly handsome face broke out into a smile that made his eyes crinkle and his dimples appear. “I wasn’t going to. I was going to say, it’s where I come to check my work. Contrary to popular belief, I’m not psychic nor do I have ESP,” he said as he turned his attention back to the bodies. “The only real ability I possess is the ability to pay very close attention.”

Dani nodded with a grin because that was more or less what she’d expect him to say. “Ahh…I will leave you to it then.” 

Dani turned towards the door and Malcolm hurriedly caught her arm. “Dani, wait!” 

Malcolm knew what he had to do and he couldn’t help but feel the strongest sense of deja vu that this was the exact same place he’d revealed a tiny part of his heart to her before.

His heart beat in double time as he took in Dani in her plain long sleeved navy v-neck and her black high waisted jeans, idly wondering exactly how it was possible for someone to look so gorgeous under the sickly florescent lights of a morgue. Dani quirked a brow waiting for him to say something.

He had so many things he wanted to tell her but his mind had drawn a blank. He ran a hand through his hair as he often did when he was nervous, disturbing its careful neatness. “I…uh…missed you…” Malcolm sighed internally. _Very eloquent_.

Dani tilted her head, clearly confused at his admittedly strange sentiment. “Um…you saw me a few hours ago.”

“Uh…yeah but I meant that I missed you like talking to you, the way we used to. It was nice.”

The edges of Dani’s full lips curved up, hinting at a smile. “It was,” she said quietly, offering nothing else and Malcolm knew he’d had much more to say.

“I also wanna apologize. Dani, I’m sorry for everything. I’ve been a terrible friend and an even worse partner. You deserved better and I didn’t do that for you.” Malcolm forced himself to hold her gaze, he didn’t want to lose his nerve despite the terror threatening suffocate each and every one of his good intentions.

Dani smiled a little bit more as she was seeing a type of vulnerability she’d never seen from Malcolm before or at least not like this. She tended to see it in flashes. The fissures in the walls he’d constructed only existed long enough for him to patch them right back up. “I forgive you, Bright. But just tell me why. Why did you switch up on me? What did I do?” 

It was a question she’d been dying to ask him. How had she deserved his inconsistence?

“Dani…” She watched as a myriad of emotions passed through Malcolm’s ice blue eyes before settling on one that she couldn’t name. Something raw and exposed. “It was nothing you did.”

It truly wasn’t and Malcolm was _sick_ at the idea that he made Dani think that she was anything less than perfect in his eyes and everything within him screamed for him to run, for him to shut down but Malcolm had to be honest. He’d been running so long, he had to be still for once.

“My whole life I’ve wanted to be normal and I thought that I would be if I could _have_ something normal. But it’s not normal–the way I feel about you.”

Dani stepped closer to him, close enough for him to see the incredibly cute freckle under her nose. Close enough for him to reach for her if he dared. “What do you mean?”

“I mean I–" Malcolm took a deep breath, wringing his hands nervously. “I didn’t think it was possible to feel so utterly connected to you. So entirely and incurably connected to you. I mean…you’re all I think about. Whenever I see you my heart does this weird thing–“

A slow smile stretched across Dani’s full lips, the light in her eyes blinding him. “…You love me…”

Malcolm felt as though all wind had been knocked out of his chest. “… _What?_ ”

Dani narrowed her eyes though that didn’t dim the light in them even slightly and she crossed her arms. She saw right through him. She always had. It was one of the reasons she scared him so much. Malcolm had nowhere to hide as far she was concerned. The expression on her beautiful face dared him to lie and deny something they now both knew.

Malcolm raked a hand through his hair once more, realizing that he was no longer in control of this conversation as Dani had him at her mercy _again_. “Okay, yes, I love you but I feel so far from you right now and it’s all my fault.”

As much as he enjoyed talking to her again, he couldn’t help but wonder if his mistakes were irreversible. Would they ever go back to the way they were? Would Dani ever trust him again?

“Just come back to me. That’s all you have to do.” Dani smiled softly, her delicate hand coming to rest at his cheek. Malcolm leaned into her touch automatically, the _emotion_ that coursed through his body and squeezed his heart made him feel at once better and worse at her tenderness.

He remembered telling her the other day that grace was undeserved forgiveness. It was something that you can’t earn. He’d been talking about _Outer Dark_ but Malcolm realized just then that he’d been talking about himself as well. Malcolm didn’t deserve Dani’s grace nor could he earn it. It was given to him simply because she allowed it.

“I don’t want to because then I’m never gonna want to leave.” Malcolm admitted, feeling more unsure by the moment. 

Dani’s fingertips gently scratched along his stubbled jaw. “You think I’d want you to?” Just then Malcolm realized how foolish he’d been to run from her. To try to believe that he could be happy with a mere illusion of the type of love he sought. Dani was here and she’d been here the _entire_ time. The woman he truly wanted, never had any intentions of leaving him.

As much as Malcolm _knew_ this, he had to hear it from her. All he’d known is the feeling–the reality–of being abandoned. He remembered how it felt to beg someone he knew didn’t want him to stay just so he wouldn’t be left alone. He couldn’t take that from Dani.

“Dani, I won’t make it alone, so you need–just please _stay with me_. Please.” Malcolm knew how needy he sounded. He knew he’d just reinforced every reason he had for believing Dani would never want him but he couldn’t control the torrent of emotions rushing through him. He’d been holding so much inside for so long and now he just _couldn’t_. 

“Bright, I’ve always wanted you close. I won’t ask you for space. We went backwards because _you_ wanted that.” Dani reminded him pointedly, even as her fingers continued to stroke his cheek.

Malcolm’s gaze drifted downward as he could no longer meet her eyes. “I didn’t want that. I never did. I didn’t realize that I could have this–the way I feel when I’m around you–all the time. I didn’t know how to ask.”

Dani shook her head as she wrapped her arms around Malcolm’s neck. Never in a million years did she believe that Malcolm felt this way for her and for the life of her, she couldn’t believe that he’d only done what he did because he didn’t think her feelings were as strong as his. He didn’t believe she had feelings for him at all, despite her spending nearly every day at his side. The man was impossible but she’d never trade him for anyone.

“Can you ask now?” Dani quirked a brow as she felt Malcolm’s hands slowly and hesitantly encircle her waist. She felt his tremors against the thin material of her top as he brought her flush against him.

“Will you be my partner again?” Malcolm asked, still sounding a bit unsure despite the softness in his nearly translucent eyes.

“I will but you can’t hurt me anymore, Bright.” Dani said, tilting her head back to look at him. As much as she wanted to be with him, she _would_ make him work for this. His selfishness had really hurt her and he needed to know that. “I won’t allow it.”

Dani watched as the shame flooded Malcolm’s ice clear eyes but he never broke her gaze. “I didn’t think I was.”

“ _So now you know_ , “ Dani said slowly, making sure she wasn’t misunderstood. “And you can’t snap at me because you’re stressed and you can’t run from me because you’re scared. If I’m gonna fight for you, then you have to fight for me too.”

“Always,” Malcolm vowed, smiling widely when he saw Dani’s pretty face light up as though she’d just received all of her birthday wishes at the promise he wouldn’t break. 

“You’re doing better already,” Dani said as she cradled his face, tilting his chin toward her, kissing him soundly. Malcolm’s eyes fluttered shut at the impossible softness of her lips and the taste of her laughter in his mouth.

“Why did you…?” Malcolm pouted as Dani pulled away far too soon, his arms tightening around her waist. He couldn’t believe she’d done something he barely even allowed himself to imagine.

“Bright, we’re in a morgue,” Dani said, cutely scrunching her nose as she gently swiped a thumb over his bottom lip, wiping away the trace of nude pink lipstick she’d left behind. 

“Well, dead men tell no tales,” Malcolm smirked as Dani groaned. It was unbelievable yet completely apropos that her first kiss with Malcolm Bright had been in the company of the deceased–the murdered.

“You’re so horrible but I love you too.” Dani said softly, her affection undeniable as she quickly kissed her partner once more before pulling Malcolm by the hand, out of the morgue and into a future worth running to and not away from.

**Author's Note:**

> As always massive THANKS to my boo and brainstorming partner in crime @2amEuphoria like this is the result of SO many conversations. It was her idea for the meet cute at the beginning and I just totally ran with it. I was also inspired by those that wanted an In My Feelings follow up and while that isn't this exactly, I took some of those ideas to help write this.
> 
> The songs that influenced this one:
> 
> "Close" by Nick Jonas & Tove Lo  
> "Silver & Gold" by Erik Hassle
> 
> I also used prompts by @drink-it-write-it on Tumblr:
> 
> "I won't make it alone, so you need— just please stay with me. Please."
> 
> "It's not normal—the way I feel about you."
> 
> "What do you mean?"
> 
> "I mean I—" they take a deep breath, wringing their hands together nervously. "I don't think it's possible to feel so brutally devoted to you. So incurably devoted to you. I mean...you're all I think about and whenever I see you my heart does this weird thing—"
> 
> "You're in love."


End file.
